ROME (JTA) -- A Facebook group dedicated to friends of several Jewish communities in northern Italy came under an apparent anti-Semitic cyber attack.

Facebook members with clearly false profile names on Sunday joined the open Facebook group Friends of the Jewish community of Vercelli, Biella, Novara and V.C.O province, and in the course of several hours posted a series of pro-Nazi, anti-Semitic and, in some cases, obscene posts, pictures and videos on the group’s Facebook wall.

A leftist pro-Israel Italian group on Facebook raised the alarm with a post warning that the “Friends” group was under “Neo-Nazi attack” and calling on supporters to alert Facebook and the group’s administrators. Within hours of the alarm, the offending group was listed as "closed" with only six members, and no offensive posts were visible.